1. Consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for beef based on color and price discounts.
- Author
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Thies AJ, Altmann BA, Countryman AM, Smith C, and Nair MN
- Subjects
- Humans, Male, Animals, Adult, Female, Cattle, Middle Aged, Commerce, Choice Behavior, Young Adult, Food Preferences, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, Consumer Behavior, Red Meat economics, Color
- Abstract
Discoloration of beef products leads retailers to offer discounts or discard beef products, as consumers tend to reject a brownish beef color. This practice contributes to retail food waste and inefficient resource allocation linked to beef production. The objective of this study was to investigate U.S. consumer preferences for beef color and price discounts. After an initial test for screen acuity regarding color perception using a condensed form the ishihara test, data on meat purchasing behavior as well as demographic information was collected for all participants. An additional part of the study undertook a hypothetical discrete choice experiment using digital photos of beef steaks with different meat color, price, and discount labels in retail packaging to examine consumer preferences, willingness to pay, and the effects of discount pricing. Results of a Mixed Logit Model based on choice data show that beef shoppers perceive, see, and prefer color nearly linearly across days of retail display. Consumers' willingness to pay was negative for 4, 7 and 9 days of retail display relative to day zero and decreased with an increase in discoloration. Results indicate that beef shoppers would have to be financially compensated for choosing a steak that was discolored after 9 days of retail display. However, male beef buyers exhibit weaker preferences for color and could be a target segment for promoting discolored beef products to reduce meat waste., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Annika J. Thies reports financial support was provided by German Academic Exchange Service. Annika J. Thies reports financial support was provided by German Agricultural Society. Mahesh N. Nair and Amanda M. Countryman report financial support was provided by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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